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Beside Still Waters: Words of Comfort by Spurgeon By Roy Clarke In times of doubt, alarm, or discomfort, this year-long devotional book gives you a steady source of comfort, hope, and healing, delivered fresh from the pages of Scripture and in the timeless words and writings of Charles H. Spurgeon. Beside Still Waters is more than just a devotional book. Each reading is indexed by topic, allowing you to locate specific passages for all the pressing needs in your life. So let The Shepherd lead you to a place of safety and calm. Be refreshed by His peace, and encouraged by His presence. Beside Still Waters will help you find comfort and encouragement for almost any challenge you may face.

Roses in December: Comfort for the Grieving Heart By Marilyn Willett Heavilin This newly revised version of Roses in December offers compassion and encouragement to readers who are struggling with the loss of a loved one or helping a loved one cope. Marilyn Heavilin, having lost three sons, knows the tremendous sorrows and struggles that accompany the death of a loved one. She shares how even in the winters of our lives God provides roses - special people, special memories - to give us strength to persevere. This new addition also includes chapters on losing loved ones to suicide and AIDS.

Sorge, Bob The Fire of Delayed Answers By Bob Sorge This book helps clarify why the answers to our prayers may be delayed and gives practical advice for walking in faith and hope until God's release comes. If we are to mature into greater dimensions of kingdom fruitfulness, then we must commit ourselves to understanding how God uses delay to refine His chosen ones. Intensely passionate and practical, this book is written from the crucible of the author's own personal crisis of delayed answers. This is not a book of platitudes but of powerful insights that have come through the fire. May your heart be enlarged and your faith expanded as you consider the great blessings extended to those who wait in God alone.

The Wounded Heart Book and Workbook By Dr. Dan B. Allender Victims of sexual abuse are everywhere---including our churches. In these timely resources, Allender offers practical ways to deal with this "soul-deadening" trauma. He leads adult victims away from rage, fear, and confusion. For spouses, families, friends, and counselors, he suggests specific ways to help with the healing process. With Christ, there is hope for the wounded heart. Two softcovers, from NavPress.

 

Whatever is Pure - February 2007

Holy Holy Holy

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty!
Early in the morning our song shall rise to thee;
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty
God in three persons, blessed trinity!

Holy, holy, holy! Though the darkness hide thee
Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see;
Only thou art holy, there is none beside thee
Perfect in power, love, and purity

Holy, holy, holy! Lord God almighty!
All thy works shall praise thy name,
In earth, and sky, and sea;
Holy, holy, holy! Merciful and mighty
God in three persons, blessed Trinity!

It's been over 24 years now since my brother was killed in a car accident in the early morning one April day. It was a horrific and traumatic experience and much of the week following his death is a merciful blur.

On the Sunday before his funeral I attended my home church's morning service, having flown in to Calgary from my mission base in Ontario. I was heartsick; my brother was one of my best friends, my protector and my cohort in imaginary games and life experiences. We grew in our faith together in the early years of our Christian walk at this church. I sang the songs, lifted my hands in praise but it was all empty, wooden and numb that morning.

I felt empty until we began singing Holy Holy Holy and felt myself lifted as I rose to my feet, raising my arms up much as a child would in hopes of being picked up by an adult. As the verses continued, tears began to flow…. "Though the darkness hide thee, Though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see …" Even in the darkness of my broken heart, I knew my God was big, He was huge, He was able to carry me and carry my heart, he was able to carry my questions, my doubts, my pain. He was even able to carry my struggles to forgive the drunk driver who thoughtlessly murdered my brother

It was a sunny spring morning as we drove home and I could see the beautiful Rockies in the distance, majestic and still and I realized my God was so big, so strong and so mighty and he would not break as he carried me. None of my burdens would weigh him down and he could carry my hurting family as well.

How comforting it is to know the Bigness of God in the times of our deepest pain. What a blessed salve it is to our broken and wounded hearts to know that the Creator of the universe, he who holds all the stars in his hand, carries us in his heart. He knows us by name, he is intimately acquainted with every thought, every heart cry and every motive of our heart and he loves us still.

© Katherine Walden
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The War We Are Fighting

Let's talk about the war that we are fighting every day, the war against Satan and the evil in the world. That war isn't fought externally, it isn't something magical, with angels on white horses and demons casting spells and possessing people. The war is fought within our hearts and minds and Satan uses all the weapons in his arsenal to win each battle. He uses the culture that we live in and, as humans, often accept. This acceptance allows us to ignore some of the things we shouldn't ignore, sometimes to even say, "it's all right.", when we know it isn't. He uses the pride that we, as humans, often allow to influence our decisions, thinking that we know what's best. He places doubts in our heart, that, sometimes, stops us from doing the very work that God has given us to do. You see, Satan knows he can't win the war, it's already won. His desire now, is to take as many causalities as he can.

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8)

This has happened to me before, I think more than I have realized. When I consider the opportunities I’ve had to make a difference but didn't, I understand that I lost a battle. When I think of the times I could have, should have, witnessed to someone, and didn't, I understand that I lost a battle. When I consider how often I didn't have time to study my Bible but took time for something else, I understand that I lost a battle. When I think of all the times I should have stood up for what I believed and decided not to, I lost a battle. I understand that every time I’ve jumped into something impulsively, without talking to God about it, I‘ve lost a battle.

"Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of suffering." (1 Peter 5:9)

My prayer for you, and I ask you to pray this same prayer for me, is that we will be given the grace and wisdom to step back, take some quiet time, and consider the battles to come; That we will resist the easy" answers and, instead, take things to God in prayer. That we will clothe ourselves for battle, with the weapons He has given us, that we will put on the full armor of God and fight like our lives depend on it.

"Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." (Eph 6:10-12)

God Bless,

© Dick Kent

Please email author for permission to reprint or use in any format.

The Dove

I was sitting in my chair, feeling all alone
There was sadness in my eyes,
What did I do so wrong
I looked up to the Heavens
Into the beautiful sky
Wishing I could visit Jesus
So I would no longer cry.

My eyes saw a dove coming down to me
I knew it was Dear Jesus' Spirit that I could see
I fell to my knees
as the dove graced my shoulder
I never felt so loved, I felt it all over
A white dove with eyes of blue
Was looking at me closely,
As I was looking too

I said 'The Lord's Prayer'
As I watched this miracle
There was once again my hope
Which was lost for a time
I know now, Jesus loved me all the time

The Dove kissed me on the cheek
And washed away a tear
Then the spirit of My Jesus, in the form of a Dove
Went back to Heaven,
I could see Him touch the clouds above

He is giving me time to heal,
All the hurt and sorrow that I sometimes feel
I will always remember
A Dove came to bless me
Now I worship Jesus
Because his love set me free

Determined To Live In Hope

From the DCQ Archives at http://dailychristianquote.com/dcqarchive.html

February 11, 2005

"What then?" Some one will say. "We have been beguiled and are lost. Is there no salvation left? We have fallen: Is it not possible to rise again? We have been blinded: May we not recover our sight? We have become crippled: Can we never walk upright? In a word, we are dead: May we not rise again? " He that woke Lazarus who was four days dead and already stank, shall He not, O man, much more easily raise thee who art alive? He who shed his precious Blood for us, shall Himself deliver us from sin. Let us not despair of ourselves, brethren; let us not abandon ourselves to a hopeless condition. For it is a fearful thing not to believe in a hope of repentance.

Cyril

Luke 8:43-48 NKJV
Now a woman, having a flow of blood for twelve years, who had spent all her livelihood on physicians and could not be healed by any, came from behind and touched the border of His garment. And immediately her flow of blood stopped. And Jesus said, "Who touched Me?" When all denied it, Peter and those with him said, "Master, the multitudes throng and press You, and You say, ‘Who touched Me?'" But Jesus said, "Somebody touched Me, for I perceived power going out from Me." Now when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling; and falling down before Him, she declared to Him in the presence of all the people the reason she had touched Him and how she was healed immediately. And He said to her, "Daughter, be of good cheer; your faith has made you well. Go in peace."

I live with a congenital progressive neurological condition and as a result, I have great sympathy and admiration for the courageous woman mentioned in Luke's account. Ever hopeful, she had not given up in her quest for healing. Enduring treatment after treatment only to be faced with failure again and again, she pressed on. Even when all appeared to be hopeless, when her wallet was empty and her resources were completely spent, this woman determined to live in hope.

This determination came at a price that went far beyond her pocketbook. In the times of Jesus, a woman who bled in such a way was considered 'unclean' and 'shameful', definitely an illness to be kept as hidden as possible. As she went from doctor to doctor, her private business could have became the gossip of the neighbourhood. "Tsk, you think she'd just resign to the will of God, it's her burden to bear ..." More than likely, her loving friends and family counseled her to stay home and to stop seeking treatments, after all, hadn't every attempt to find healing failed? In their good intentions, they didn't want her to get her hopes up only to have them crushed.

She was well used to pushing past societal prejudices, the good intentions of others, her past experiences and her own fears, yet she still trembled as she pressed through that last barrier, seeking God's healing. Her need and her faith overcame her timidity as her fingers touched the hem of his garment and instantly ... she was healed. She could have retreated back in the crowd and kept her anonymity intact but in obedience and gratefulness, she declared her healing, even though in the process, she was revealing her past shameful condition to multitudes of strangers. By her faithfulness, she received yet another precious gift, the gift of peace. No longer would she need to hide in the shadows, the Truth had set her free.

Jesus, Healer of all, we come to you, knowing you are the God that heals bodies and heals hearts. We place our trust in you as our great Physician and we determine to live in hope and not in darkness. Jesus, you came not only to heal our bodies but restore our lives and we step out of the dark shadows of our secret shame into your light. We gladly receive your forgiveness and open our hearts to your healing correction and gentle conviction. No longer do we need to live in the bondage of the fear of being 'found out' for who the Son has set free is free indeed. We put our trust in the one who promises to forgive our sins cleanse us from our unrighteousness.

©2007 Katherine Walden
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Receive a free weekly devotional by Katherine .

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